Saturday, July 2, 2016

Rose's: A Place to Support

I’d like to take a break from my normal topics. I’d like to talk about something much more societal, rather than the inward facing things I usually ramble on about. Have you ever sat down and found a small nugget of information, one group, or even just a singular person who gives you a little bit of hope for humanity? Someone or something that just makes you think, “Maybe we can learn to work together, and love one another.”Through all the carnage happening in dark world we live in, it’s nice to see a glimmer of light. A pizza shop in Philadelphia hopes it can give you your glimmer of light for the day.

It’s called Rosa’s Fresh Pizza, a small pizza shop looking to pay it forward to anyone it can help. The small pizza shop sells extremely affordable slices at only 1 dollar a slice. One day a man came in and bought pizza. He then asked to pay another dollar to get a slice of pizza for the next homeless person who came into the shop. So an incredible effort began.

Photos courtesy Rose's Pizza

Mason Wartman, the owner, explains that he has given away more than 8,500 slices of pizza in the last 9 months to homeless people (as of early 2015). The walls are coated in post-it notes, redeemable for one slice of pizza for a person in need of a meal. Not only are they a sign to indicate a piece of pizza. They’re also personal messages. The post-it notes allow for people to write motivating and heartfelt messages to the 30 - 40 homeless people they are aiding every day.

These were numbers when it was covered in early 2015 by Upworthy and The Ellen Show. As of a year ago, the place has given away 23,000 slices of pizza.

As the business picked up, Mason required more employees. He contacted new employees through programs that found jobs for homeless people. It’s another testament to the business model he has been following, and something many others should try to follow suit.

So here you are, just a feel good story about people trying to help others in the messed up world we live. I have a simple question. How can any of us have a positive impact such as that? What can we provide? I strongly encourage people to donate even the smallest amount of money to this business, buy a T-shirt, or go down there to buy a few pieces of pizza. All in all, try to be a decent human being.

— While Derick Sears thinks the world is a steaming pile of garbage that will eventually fall apart like everything else, he looks for the best in it, and tries to be part of that. That’s all he can do. It’s all any of us can do. So we should do it well. —